ISSUES: Brothers Fight

The unrest that gripped Kenyan slums, neighborhoods and villages following the disputed 2007 presidential election was the worst outbreak of ethnically motivated violence they nation had seen since its independence in 1963. Fueled by long-standing ethnic hatred, a precise hostility ripped through the streets of Nairobi, spreading as far as the cities of Eldoret, Naivasha and Kisumu. The largest Kenyan tribe, the Kikuyus, were the first to be targeted and uprooted from their homes and businesses. What followed was an ethnic conflict in which Kenyan youth, typically unemployed and idle, were routinely bribed by the political elite to carry out acts of violence against their neighbors. Ironically, youth were also the greatest victims of the violence, culminating in the deaths of over 1,000 Kenyans and the displacement of 600,000.